The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel was a surprise hit in 2012, leveraging the "oldies" out of their armchairs and into the cinemas in droves: the film returned around 15 times its modest $10M budget. Now three years later comes the sequel – the amusingly titled "Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel", and its much of the same again. After all, why break a winning formula? Set eight months after the original, and with an enviable occupancy record, expansion is on the cards for the Marigold Hotel. Sonny (Dev Patel) and Muriel (Maggie Smith) head to San Diego in search of investment funding from the US company Evergreen Inc, with the view to expand the franchise into a second property and beyond. There is interest from the owner Ty Burley (David Strathairn, probably best known as the head of Treadstone in the Bourne films) but that interest also brings the threat of a hotel inspector making Sonny (now back in India) suspicious of every new face. Richard Gere's appearance as a wannabe novelist sparks a particularly frantic burst of sucking-up, the farce surrounding these scenes being very reminiscent of the famous Fawlty Towers episode.
Sonny and Sunaina (Tina Desai) are to be married, and the storyline compounds the stresses associated with the business expansion with the stresses associated with the rituals and relationships surrounding the nuptials. Adding fuel to the fire is the unwelcome intervention – in both love and business – of a rich and good-looking family friend and rival (Shazad Latif), bringing the couple's relationship to breaking point. In a slew of secondary story lines, the rest of the ensemble cast comprising Bill Nighy, Judi Dench, Ronald Pickup, Celia Imrie, Diana Hardcastle (sidenote: wife of Tom Wilkinson) and Penelope Wilton pursue love and happiness against the romantic backdrop of Jaipur.
It is hard to actively dislike this film. Like the first film, and like similar recent films such as The Hundred Foot Journey, the esteemed cast demands your attention from the off and the lush colours of India (strikingly enhanced by the job of Evelyn – Judi Dench – in fabric procurement) wrap around you and warm you like a favourite cardigan. The script entertains, with good humour throughout and a smattering of laugh-out-loud lines. In terms of the acting, there is nothing like a Dame and both Dench and Smith are once again excellent, displaying nuanced and – particularly in Smith's case – very moving performances. Bill Nighy (after the strikingly different performance in "Pride") is back into reliable Bill Nighy acting territory again! New to the cast in this outing is one of my favourite comedy actresses Tamsin Greig ("Episodes") and Richard Gere, looking more silver-fox than ever.
But a particular joy for me was Ronald Pickup, celebrating 50 years in the business (after a debut in Dr Who!) who turns in a stellar performance as the besotted but slightly neurotic Norman Cousins.
Another star of the film is India itself. Having had the opportunity to travel extensively, I have never been particularly drawn to India: but this film does more for the Indian Tourist Board than a host of travel brochures ever could. Jaipur looks breath-taking – who knew they had a "Great Wall of China"? – and I may need to reconsider my future travel itinerary.
John Madden ("Mrs Brown", "Shakespeare in Love") directs again, with Thomas Newman scoring.
Any sequel will naturally be compared against its original and, whilst good, this is no "Empire Strikes Back". The film tries to partition itself into the different stages of the wedding preparations, but this becomes rather forced and irritating, particularly since the whole wedding storyline, and the mining of Sonny's jealous streak, gets a bit tiresome. I yearned to be left alone with more time for the quieter and more subtle love story lines permeating the rest of the film.
The script also tends to overly labour the 'you're old so you're about to die' angle in a manner that seems at times to be rather patronising.
But in summary, if you enjoyed the original then you won't find the sequel to be much of a disappointment.
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